Month: October 2017

I wasn’t really sure what to play this week as I was quite busy but I ended up going back to one of my favorite game series, Kingdom Hearts.

Data Collection

Game name: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (HD Remaster)

Time played: 5.5hrs

Game genre: Action RPG

Days played: Saturday

Platform played on: PlayStation 4

Communities / Participants: Me (1)

Self Reflection

This week I decided to go back and play one of my favorite games from the PlayStation 2, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. I picked up the HD Remake of it for the PlayStation 4. From the moment I started up the g, me I had a feeling of nostalgia for the days when I came home after school and played this. Having played this game before I felt like I should spend a while leveling up the main character Sora, on the starting island. It turned out that this was a good decision because the first boss in the game was quite a bit harder than I remembered. Eventually, I met up with our two side character, Donald and Goofy from the Disney Universe.

From here the game got a bit easier although, It felt like the remaster might have had some improvements made to the AI for Donald and Goofy. Suddenly, Donald and Goofy were actually being useful Non-Player Characters doing their jobs of attacking and supporting the party. I felt like I played well and was able to level each character at a decent rate while progressing at a reasonable pace.

This week, Mario Kart with a friend on a Super Nintendo Classic and on my Nintendo 3ds. It’s a fun racing game based in the Mario Universe. I’ll try to discuss my experience playing the original vs the new Mario Kart 7 on the 3ds.

This week, I played Ghost Recon: Wildlands with my friend from work. The tactical shooter is probably one of my favorite games of 2017. It has unique gameplay featuring an open world environment with both primary and secondary objectives in each mission as well as side missions.

Data Collection

Game name: Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Time played: 6hrs

Game genre: Tactical Shooter

Days played: Saturday, Sunday

Platform played on: PlayStation 4

Communities / Participants: Friend and I (2)

Self Reflection

I enjoyed playing Ghost Recon over the weekend, I like the third person playstyle while still being able to go into a first person view while shooting. When playing alone you are joined by a squad of AI soldiers which you can strategically control to take down targets. While this is nice, I feel the AI is underwhelming in its ability to be subtle, which is bad because stealth is a big part of the game. It is fun to drive around the open world map with your squad taking out various bad guys and helping the rebel forces though.

I was joined by my friend this weekend, we played online over PlayStation Network and it was nice but it was different than what we usually do. We usually go to each other’s houses and setup and extra screen and PS4 to play. When sitting in the same room, I find my response time to the things going on in the game is quicker. Playing remotely proved to be more challenging, we had to revive each other a lot more than usual. That is one of the nice things about Ghost Recon though if you die or get too injured then members of your squad can come revive you.

We mainly played the side missions, collecting new weapons and weapon customizations while helping the rebel forces, so we could level up. Leveling up allowed me to get some better abilities like more armor and better health regen after being revived. Other perks include things like Drone perks, Weapon perks, and then squad bonuses.

Overall, I think I played alright but could have done a lot better had we been playing in the same room where there is no delay in communication causing a breakdown in teamwork.

I spent my free time this week playing Gundam Breaker 3. Gundam Breaker 3 is an action game where you pilot and customize a Gundam to compete in battle royale style tournaments. It’s basically a hack n’ slash game with a ton of customization options for the Gundam you control.

Data Collection

Game name: Gundam Breaker 3 – Mar 3rd, 2016 – Developed by Namco

Time played: 3.5hrs

Game genre: Action

Days played: Friday

Platform played on: PlayStation 4

Communities / Participants: Me

Self Reflection

This was not my first time playing Gundam Breaker 3 and it definitely won’t be the last. I ended up starting over from the first story mission. I recorded some of the gameplay which can be seen below. I didn’t take the time to refamiliarize myself with the controls so I didn’t do quite as well as planned on the first couple of missions. At some points, it felt more like button mashing until I grasped the controls and then it was smooth sailing. I completed several missions and acquired many new parts for my Gundam.

After getting familiar with the controls and collecting a bunch of Gundam parts, I decided to customize my Gundam. I tend to prefer close range melee weapons and being fast over having heavy firepower and being slower. The momentum the extra speed gives makes it easier to deal a critical blow with my play style. Having played the game before I know I will need to swap out parts and go for something a bit more powerful in future missions.

While at some points I find Gundam Breaker 3 to be a bit repetitive, I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of mech based games or the Gundam franchise. I’ve been building Gundam models, also known as Gunpla, for the past few years. Most, if not all, of the gunpla currently available are based on Gundams featured in the many Gundam Anime series. I plan to pick up the new game Gundam Versus in the next few weeks, so maybe that will make an appearance in a future blog.